This iconic building dates from the late 16th or early 17th century. It has two-bay elevations on two streets, a beautiful three light oriel window with mullions and a transom in at the back. It also has a slight buttress or batter at the base of the outer wall, as has the building now occupied by Evergreen at the top of High Street. The premises has a long and interesting history.
It was the town house of Richard Martin, better known as Humanity Dick because he was one of the founders of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He was one of the Martin family who owned much of Conamara, and was elected as Member of Parliament for Galway on a number of occasions. He used to claim to have ‘the longest drive in the world’ which started just outside Galway and went out as far as Ballynahinch. Martin built a theatre in Kirwan’s Lane for his wife who fancied herself as an actress. They put on plays there – Martin acted in some himself – but the project came to an end when a young Theobald Wolfe Tone came to live with the family as a teacher of their children. He also featured in some plays, but he had an affair with Mrs Martin and was ‘asked to leave’. Enthusiasm for theatricals evaporated.
The pub was later occupied by the O’Connor family and was known as The Bear House. In 1894, 130 years ago, it came into the possession of John Naughton from Park, Spiddal and his family have been running it ever since. He married Kate Murphy from Carnmore and they had three children, Paddy, Mary and Sarah. He and Kate were very involved in the formation of Conradh na Gaeilge in Galway. John died in 1904 and subsequently, Kate changed the name over the door to the Irish language version. She refused to serve anyone in uniform and as so many Galwegians had joined the British Army and Navy during World War 1, and as Galway was a garrison town hosting a lot of English troops, she immediately lost most of her customers. It was mostly gaeilgeóirí from Spiddal and Carnmore that kept her going.
The Irish language name over the door did not please the Black and Tans who ordered the family to change it to English. They never did and the Tans threatened them and fired shots through the windows on a number of occasions. One of the bullets is said to have gone through the clock. One night, the Tans dragged Kate’s son Patrick, a medical student who occasionally helped wounded republicans, out on to the street. It is not known what they were going to do with him but his mother followed them out and kicked up such a racket screaming and screeching that a lot of the neighbours came out on the street – this meant too many witnesses so they let him go.
When An Taidhbhearc was being set up in 1928, Mícheál Mac Liammóir and Hilton Edwards were invited to produce and direct the first production, and while in Galway, they stayed upstairs in this building. MacLiammóir based a sequence in his one-man show “I must be talking to my Friends” on the pub.
Kate’s daughter Sarah married a Clonmel man James McGuire who was the manager of the Blackrock Clothing Company on Williamsgate Street. She ran the pub for many years after her mother died, and today, it is the capable hands of her son Jimmy.
The old part of the bar has not changed, still has the original wooden furnishings, but Jimmy has gradually evolved and expanded it into what it is today. He has added the next door premises, once famously known as The Casbah, to the building and today the pub is a cosy maze of welcoming rooms. The décor continually surprises, an eclectic mix of a unique collection of Arts Festival posters, old maps, photographs, documents, cartoons etc. It is an iconic establishment, much loved by locals and tourist alike.
So today, we have two illustrations. The first a drawing of the Cross Street facade that was first published in 1884 and the second, a photograph, dates from c1910. It shows Kate on the left, her daughter Mary beside her and the small girl is Sarah. We do not know who the other two are, they may well have worked for Kate.
So happy 130th anniversary Tigh Neachtain. And may we wish all our readers a happy and a peaceful Christmas agus Atbhliain fé shéan is fe mhaise díbh.
